Conference misery::feline_v1

    
    Hi Nancy,
    
    Another good deed!  I hope you are able to convince Penny to enter the
    trap, I suggest chicken livers or Tuna as bait.  I wish I lived a
    little closer so that I could give more than moral support.
    
    Good luck!
    
    Feline worried for Penny,
    
    Sue & Panther & Spot
    

    Good luck Nancy!  Boy, do you deserve your place in Heaven!
    
    Barbara
    
    PS  Prayers are on the way.

    I'm just passing it along....
    
    Many many years ago - about 12 yrs to be exact - I had Kathryn spayed
    at age 6 months.  We picked her up at the vet and brought her home 
    and discovered that she was pulling at her stitches.  We couldn't 
    figure out how to bandage her up and we were going over a friend's
    house so we decided to bring her along so we could keep an eye on her.
    
    Well, this friend lived on Dorchester ave, near Fields corner in an 
    old, just about abandoned building.  He stayed there free because
    he kept the vandals away from the place.  Since he was the only
    tennant he tended to keep his door open.  Well, no matter how hard
    I tried, and how nicely I asked, his other friends just couldn't
    seem to remember to shut the d*&*(& door and, you guessed it, I dis-
    covered that Kathryn was missing!
    
    I searched the buiding and found lots of rat poison, but no Kathryn.
    I looked outside and everywhere I could think of and no Kathryn.  I
    was absolutely desperate.  The next day I put up signs and talked
    to the local kids and even talked to the mounted policeman who must
    have thought I was nuts.  
    
    I was so depressed and upset and I didn't know what to do.  Well
    the next night, just after we'd gotten home from my boyfriend's
    parents' house, I got a call and after verifying the phone number,
    the person who called just said "Come and get your cat, she's driving
    us crazy."  Well, we FLEW up the street (I lived on Savin Hill ave
    at the time) and got her back.  Apparently she'd just walked up onto
    this couple's porch and demanded to be let in.  They brought her in,
    fed her turkey breast, and had tried to get me all night.  Actually,
    it was one of the neighborhood children who recognized Kathryn as
    the missing cat I was looking for.
    
    So, I'm just passing the good deed along.  As they say, "Don't return
    kindness, pass it along."

    I've had an assistant's at the vet's twice bring my cat out to me in the
    waiting room without putting him in his cage.  ("Oh, I didn't realize
    you had left a cage.")  Expletive deleted.  I should have complained to
    the vet right away, I believe I'll mention it the next time we're in.
                 
    

    Nancy already has a place in heaven  right along with some other
    feliners in this file.
    
    I hope you do get Penny and that she is alright.  I also insist in
    putting my babies in the carrier before I leave a building whether it
    is my home or the vet's office.  They don't like it but I feel safer
    and I know that they are safer.
    
    Sandi and the Storm-Troopers
    
    

    Another horror story.  Last weekend, at Revelers, some exhibitor
    lost a Persian kitten in the parking lot of the Cow Palace.  Signs
    were posted all over, offereing a reward for it's return, and then,
    annoucements were made telling the public that if someone found
    the kitten, please to just let the owner know that it was okay.
    By that time, she just wanted to know that if was okay, and not
    having to fend for itself outdoors.  I think the assumption was
    made that if someone found it, they wouldn't want to give it up
    for the reward, but keep it themselves.  As far as we know, it was
    never found, despite all attempts. 
    
    Jo

    
    thanx for the reminders.  as i prepare to move into my new house, i
    have been going over in my mind how to coordinate the cats' move. 
    until recently, i only had one cat carrier.  until stanley, I had only
    had one cat at a time, and as it is now, they don't go to the vet at
    the same time.  but this move forced me to realize that they were not
    both going to fit into the same kennel cab (small as it is, anyway). i
    was lucky to find a larger pet taxi at a good price.  so now they both
    have their own carrier, the right size for them.
    
    the cat carrier--don't leave home without it!!!
    
    diane, stanley & stella (soon to be moving uptown)
    

    Another reason to have one carrier per cat is in case of emergency
    (fire, etc.).
    

    UPDATE:  We picked up a have-a-heart trap on Satuday and placed it
    at one of Penny's food locations.  We've been checking it every
    few hours over the weekend but no luck.  I was a bit concerned
    that she might have been injured or killed but I saw her last
    night from a distance - good thing she's mostly white.  Turns
    out that the folks who own her have been leaving food in another
    location too.  I asked them to stop that because if Penny's at all
    wary of the trap she'll just avoid it and eat at the other location.
    We have to  hope that hunger will overcome her caution.
    
    The trap is chained to a tree and I made sure the owners have the
    combination to the lock.  I also told them that if they couldn't
    get the lock open to feel free to use heavy duty wire cutters to
    cut the chain.  I told them NOT to try and empty the trap outside.
    
    They are so happy to have help.  Betty - one of the owners - said
    that it helps to have someone to call and to know that someone
    else is doing something to help.  I wish we were being more effective.
    
    If I haven't mentioned it before, Penny IS an x-feral and has been
    with the Malloy's since December - about the same amount of time
    that Bob etc have been with us.  I wouldn't give much for our
    chances of catching Bob if he got out so I have a good idea of
    what we're dealing with.  Prayers would be greatly appreciated.
    
     Thanks
       Nancy DC
    

    Good luck with catching Penny. You are doing your best!
    
    Here's hoping for good news soon,
    
    Lisa plus Pookie.
    

			Urban Trappers Catch Their Prey

				by Dave Barry

(Not Reprinted without permission from the Miami Herald, or the Braintree Forum)

I had every intention of writing this column about the national debt, and the
fact that lots of fat Congress-people are probably about to vote themselves
another pay raise, but when I heard about the urban trappers in Braintree Mass,
I decided to save that column (and the Tip O'Neil jokes) for another day.

Nancy Diettrich-Cunniff (who goes by the unlikely name of Nancy DC) and her
husband Jack Cunniff (who goes by the unlikely name of Jack), are cat-lovers.
The DEC Feliners (don't ask my why they call themselves that, it gets obvious
as you read this) are a group of cat lovers working for Digital Equipment Corp.
Digital has these computerized electronic bulletin boards called NOTESFILES
that the employees use only at lunchtime, where they read newspaper columns
extracted without permission of the Miami Herald, but with the permission
of yours truly, and these Feliners (I bet you were wondering when I was
going to mention them again) use the FELINE notefile to talk about their
cat-loving exploits.  Personally, I don't use a computer for anything other
than word processing and balancing my checkbook, but my kids use it for
blowing up aliens and solving the national debt, which doesn't get better
because my kids aren't Congress-people.

Nancy and Jack (I bet you were wondering when I was going to get back to
their story, but I WAS going to write about the national debt) decided
to get involved when their vet told Nancy that a cat escaped from their
owner after being spayed. Since Nancy lives in the neighborhood, and is
a loyal Feliner, she got involved. Receiving a tip from a neighbor, she
and Jack rushed to the neighbor's yard with a carrier and a fishing net,
but they didn't see the cat. At that point, she borrowed a Hav-a-hart trap
from a contact at work, and set out to trap the cat.

The trapping didn't go well for a few days. Nancy heard that another neighbor
was trying to use a different type of trap, similar to the kind that
Wile E. Coyote uses to catch the Roadrunner in the Saturday-morning cartoons.
The ACME trap (AKA Cardboard Box-n-Stick-n-String trap) has one drawback,
which is that a person has to hold onto the string for up to 48 hours at
a time waiting for the cat to sit under the box before the string can be
pulled. When Nancy realized that no self-respecting ex-feral cat would
allow itself to be trapped like this, she realized another trap had to
be located.

As the National Debt progressed, (I bet you were wondering how I'd keep you
posted on that), Nancy started calling around to locate another Hav-a-hart.
She called the local Animal Control officer, who informed her that they
don't have traps, and that trapping was illegal in Braintree, and referred
her to the MSPCA who might have a trap she could use. I swear I am not making
this up!

The owners of the lost cat rented another trap, and set it where the ACME trap
had been, and then Night Fell.

When Nancy DC and Jack got up this morning, and started making the trap rounds,
they checked the location of the ex-ACME trap and saw it had been triggered,
and contained a very unhappy skunk. For those of you who have seen a giant
South Florida Cockroach, which grows to a weight of 14 pounds per capita,
you can picture a skunk that large and then picture it in the trap. Jack
carefully removed the skunk from the trap, by tipping it practically vertical
and dumping the skunk and its burrow (which it had apparently brought along
into the trap). The urban trappers then went to the second trap, which
had also been triggered, but this one contained not an urban skunk, but
the lost cat!

The cat seemed to be none the worse for wear, it's spay stitches (which I'll
probably discuss in a future article after I write about the National Debt)
were still there (all but one), and when Nancy called the owners (at 6:20AM),
everyone was quite happy.

When Nancy DC and Jack were leaving the cat (now delivered to it's owners),
it was contentedly rubbing against everything and being very glad to be home.

And it's off to Digital and the notefiles for the Urban Trappers! 



    

    I LOVE IT!  JUST WHAT WE NEEDED TO PERK UP MY MORNING!  
    
    Congratulations, Nancy & Jack!  So glad to hear she's home safe and
    sound.
    
    Pat, Holly, Buffy, D.P., Thai, Midnight, Jamie (& Cookie)  :-)
    

    When was this in the paper???  It's great!

    re .14 - 
    
    it's a forgery, a caffeine-induced imitation of Dave Barry's work!
    
    Ellie
    (who has Jack in her office right now!)

    Wow!  This is great!!  Not only did you get the cat back, but you
    ended up celebreties in the process!!!
    
    :^).
    
    My morning is made!
    
    
    --Roberta
    

    Thanks guys!  I especially enjoyed watching Jack try to convince
    the skunk to leave the trap.  First Jack made a very wide approach
    and came up to the trap from one closed end so the skunk wouldn't
    see him.  Then he leaned over the trap and opened the other side.
    Now the skunk says "Hey, now that there's a way out, this ain't so
    bad.  There's food.  Maybe I'll just hang out here for a while."
    So Jack had to pick the trap up on end and jiggle it - TWICE - 
    before the silly skunk would leave.  Then Jack shook the skunk's
    "Burrow" (dirt and leaves that the skunk had managed to pull into
    the trap with him) out and left the cage on its side.
    
      I like skunks so I thought this was a hoot!  especially from the
    safety of the car  ;-)
      Nancy dc
    

    I should add that Penny had only pulled out one stitch and although
    dirty, looked none the worse for wear.  When she got to her home she
    started walking around, rubbing the doorways as if nothing had
    happened.  Cats are amazing!
    
    Betty and Frank want to take us out to dinner and at first I didn't
    feel comfortable with that because that's not why I helped.  But
    after I thought about it I realized that they need a way of
    thanking us for our help and that was important.  So we're going to
    have an enjoyable evening with some other catpeople from Braintree.
      Thanks to all for advice, support & Prayers!  I LOVE HAPPY ENDINGS!
    
    Nancy DC

    
    HORRAY for NANCY & JACK!!!!!
    
    HORRAY for PENNY!!!
    
    HORRAY for CAFFINE!!!  Jack you should drink more  (caffine) and go into
    the newspaper business.
    
    HORRAY for HAPPY ENDINGS!!!!
    
    THIS REALLY MADE MY MORNING!!!
    
    Feline so glad to know the wonderful people in this file,
    
    Sue & Panther & Spot
     

    
    Nancy;
    
    	Is that Scottish Fold Cats or Scottish Pole-cats?
    
    	Kirk

    Jack, you dirty rat!  You are really good at that D. B. stuff.... maybe
    we should rename you!
    
    That was so much like something Dave would do..... he is always going
    off the subject.  I love it!

      
    
    Well, I swallowed it too!   Someone should go into the newspaper
    business.  Glad to see that everything turned out o.k.
    
    This story is sort of close to the topic, but maybe you Dave Barry
    fans will understand.
    
    My housemate and I took her mom for a ride last night in the "wilds"
    of Wilbraham.  I was in the back with Nikki, our Std. Poodle who
    was busy sniffing for things interesting (she looovvves horses),
    when the car made an abrupt halt.  It seems that this white pony
    was ambling across the road in no hurry to go anywhere but to better
    grazing fields.
    
    It was obviously loose with no one in sight, and a danger to himself.
    So, what are we to do?  Why, go up to the nearest house with a barn
    and ask.  Which I did.  After knocking a couple of times, this woman
    came to the door and looked at me strangely through the glass.
    I asked quickly if she owned a white pony, to which she replied
    yes, I do.  I told her that it had just crossed the road in front
    of us and was now on the other side of the street.  "O.k., thanks
    a lot!" she said with a look that said that this had happened before.
    She's probably not used to strange people stopping to do things
    like this!!
    
    I guess we Feliners just watch out for all wandering animals!!
    
    Debbi and gang